2019 is already on course be a mammoth year for Perth rockers The Date. Not only are they set to release their fourth album Premedidated, they are doing so unveiling one track per month, leaving no idle time throughout the year. Personal, politically outspoken and conscientious, Premedidated continues The Date’s ethos of capturing real world issues with passion and honesty. As they always have been, The Date remain a band that writes what they see.
Spearheaded by vocalist/bassist David Moran and guitarist Rob Susanto, The Date have produced Premedidated between their own Dating 42 Studios and Crank Studios with engineer Troy Nababan… and the results speak for themselves. Following on from first taster Liquidate, second single Candidate is a master class in iconic Australian rock. Drenched in political overtones, Candidate expresses a national bewilderment over Australia’s current political climate – calling out the sameness and insincerity of each PM candidate desperately campaigning to win the hearts of the masses before scurrying back to where they came from.
On their first new material since 2017’s album Master Date, Moran elaborates, “Candidate was originally written during a period in Australian politics when the only difference between the multiple prime ministers that were presented to the Australian people, was how alike they were in their ‘sincerity’. Great promises and boundless recriminations against each ones opposition had meant that now more than ever there was no real difference (or substance) to their assertions and denials.
To most people I listened to talk about politics at this point, it seemed that they didn’t mind being governed, but they did mind watching the politicians of the day trying desperately to hold on to their jobs while the country struggled through the difficult global times. After all, the majority of people had to themselves work a full week to get a full weeks pay so the self-serving rhetoric only caused for an ever widening gap between the people and the parties, and the gap between the parties became smaller as the policies become fewer and the personalities became bigger … and so we turned away.
Candidate is about that ever charismatic, hand shaking, baby blessing best friend that is the politician on the path to secure your vote. Desperately trying to impart both their vision and their sense of camaraderie to the masses for those 12–16 weeks of the campaign and then back to the self-built bunkers of denial and righteousness of steady state politics.”
As one of Perth’s most enduring bands that writes for itself but plays for its fans, each month The Date will present the fruit of their hard work until Premedidated is fully realised.
